A new fabrication yard, jointly developed by Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), Azeri state oil company Socar and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC), has been officially opened by Azeri president, Ilham Aliyev.
The 62 hectares Baku Shipyard is intended to build a wide range of vessels, including offshore support vessels and tankers. The yard also has ship repair and conversion capabilities.
Baku Shipyard reinforces Keppel’s existing footprint in Azerbaijan where it has been operating the Caspian Shipyard Company (CSC), also a joint venture between Keppel O&M and Socar, since 1997.
Keppel O&M currently has a 10% interest in the new yard, while Socar and AIC own the remaining 65% and 25% respectively.
Phase 1 of the yard was built at an estimated cost of $470million and the target is to undertake up to 100 repairs and conversions per annum, plus new-builds.
Phase 2 is currently in planning and will include the construction of a graving dock with added facilities for offshore projects.
The yard is already in discussions on several potential new projects and has secured two contracts . . . one to build a 50-tonne bollard pull azimuth stern drive tug and the other is for a set of pontoons for a semi-submersible in conjunction with CSC.
Meanwhile, construction has started on a $800million semi-submersible drilling rig that is being built by CSC for Socar subsidiary Caspian Drilling Company.
It is being built to Keppel’s proprietary design, DSS38M, and is scheduled to be completed in 4Q 2016.
The semi will have a drilling depth capability of 12,192m in water depths to 1,000m. The pontoons have been designed for the rig to transit in channels with shallow draft of less than 7m. The DSS 38M will feature an operating payload of 10,200 tonnes and a high transit payload of 6,300t.
CSC is the most established yard in Azerbaijan and has delivered various mobile offshore drilling units. They include the Maersk Explorer (now Heydar Aliyev) and Transocean’s Trident 20 jack-up rig.